Road To Redemption
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: So much can change before we know it... but one thing we should never let go of is getting back what was never properly lost. (Co-written with Cry-Of-A-Warp-Engine, AU from Elimination Chamber 2018)
1. How It Started Off

**A/N: Hello there everyone. I wish Elimination Chamber had actually ended like this which is what caused this idea to form in my mind. Hopefully after Wrestlemania, the title will be on someone who's on the roster full time at least.**

 **But enough of the Wrestlemania main event that was set last night. Let's start off with this story, enjoy. :)**

 _ **Summerslam 2016…**_

" _Stay down, bitch!" Seth yelled after kicking the steel steps, having not heard the sickening sound echo from Amanda's thumb, index and middle fingers… but Finn did and within seconds, his rage took over and he was attacking Seth._

 _Seth fought back and picked Finn up, powerbombing him into the barricade and Amanda's eyes widened in horror as she heard Finn's right shoulder snap out of its socket and Finn saw the tears streaming silently down the petite brunette's face._

 _Finn relocated his shoulder and stood up, running at Seth and attacking him before tossing him into the ring. Turning to Amanda after running over, he pulled the steps away and relocated her fingers and thumb._

" _Your shoulder…" Amanda whispered as Finn crouched down._

" _Mandy, don't worry bout me… get those fingers and thumb checked." Finn whispered to her._

" _After you go in there and kick his crazy ass." Amanda says, the two sharing a quick kiss before Finn ran into the ring and she stood up._

 _The ending was improvised but Finn was handed the championship and him and Amanda hugged… but when they walked into the backstage area, Hunter ran to them._

" _Kids…" Hunter started to ask._

" _His right shoulder…" Amanda responded, tears glistening in her eyes._

" _Her thumb, index and middle fingers on her right hand…" Finn replied, his left arm around Amanda's shoulders._

" _How bad?" Hunter manages to ask… but the looks in their eyes spoke volumes, the two felt like they had fucked up out there and Hunter took his surrogate kids into his arms, all three hugging._

 _To them, everything seemed to move in slow motion after that… the two were holding each other in the trainer's room once they were alone, their foreheads pressed together._

" _I'll be right back…" Amanda whispered, her and Finn kissing again before she left… and stopped to let it out._

" _Mandy?" She heard, her head snapping up and Seth seeing pure rage in her eyes. "How bad?" Seth asked._

" _You dare ask me how fucking bad?! His labrum is torn because of you, you reckless bastard!" Amanda said lowly, her voice increasing to a yell and her clenching her already injured right hand into a fist and slamming it right into Seth's nose._

 _Amanda proceeded further with the beating and Seth's screams were agonizing as he was down on the ground and Amanda was mercilessly attacking him._

" _Roman! Roman, help! Help me, she's gonna kill me!" Seth screamed, Roman managing to restrain Amanda after pulling her off and seeing Finn run to them, Amanda's tears increased and her biting on the corner of her mouth._

 _Roman noticed it again when he looked at Amanda… the shift from the enraged Demon Mistress to the feeling betrayed beyond belief Shield sister… and roughly yanked a bruised and bleeding Seth up to his feet, shoving him back._

" _Fuck off! And don't go near them again unless you want to apologize!" Roman growled, Seth taking off and Roman turning to Finn and Amanda._

" _I shouldn't have gone off like that…" Amanda said as Finn carefully examined her right hand, the fingers and thumb still in their sockets but bruising quickly._

" _Don't be sorry about it, babe. He should've waited until you calmed down." Finn replied._

" _Listen to him, Mandy Rose, he's right… you two obviously care deeply about each other, you have for a long time." Roman responded, kissing Amanda on her forehead and him and Finn shaking hands. "Take good care of each other… let it happen, embrace your changing relationship." He said before leaving._

 _Things were on the verge of changing completely… and neither knew how much…_

 **Present time,** _ **WWE Elimination Chamber 2018…**_

"Your boy's gonna get these hands and then you are!" Braun yelled at Amanda as Amanda remained close to the chamber structure, the new Raw Women's Champion insanely nervous… but Braun was dropkicked at the knees by Roman, which caused Braun to let go of Finn.

Roman ran at Braun and hit him with the Superman Punch, pinning him for the three count… when he stood up, he had no idea what was coming.

Finn was stood back up and grabbed Roman, hitting him with the 1916 DDT before going up to the top of the fourth pod and hitting Roman with the Coup De Grace off of it, much to the shock and excitement of the Las Vegas crowd before Finn covered Roman for the pinfall.

The referee counted three and the bell rang, the chamber door being opened for Amanda and her running in and her and Finn embracing tearfully before crashing their lips together.

"Finn Balor is going to Wrestlemania, facing Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship! Nearly two years of scratching and clawing back to the top have paid off big time for the Demon King!" Michael Cole exclaimed after chants of _"You deserve it!"_ and _"Road to redemption!"_ echoed loudly through the arena.

"Damn right they have, the Universal Championship is now back in his sights!" Corey Graves responded as the chamber structure was lifted and Finn and Amanda looked at the Wrestlemania sign.

"We did it…" Amanda whispered with a smile on her face as she and Finn kissed again.

Roman and Braun glanced at each other as they limped away from the ring area.

"He damn well earned it…" Roman said quietly.

"Damn right he did." Braun responded before they reached the backstage area as Renee headed out there to interview Finn.

"Finn, congrats on an amazing victory and a well earned title opportunity. Anything you'd like to say?" Renee replied.

"I never lost that championship… but I also never lost faith of getting it back. And now, the Road To Wrestlemania truly begins and I will take back what's mine!" Finn answered before turning to Amanda. "You've stood by my side every step of the way, love, your strength and love never wavered… no matter what anyone has said or done to try to stop that, we stand together and stand strong. I love you." He responded as they kissed again.

"I love you so much." Amanda whispered before they headed out of the ring, her right hand entwined with his left.

The six other competitors in the chamber match looked at each other backstage, some happy with the way tonight turned out and some not.

But they knew that the show had ended in a damn good way.


	2. Bittersweet On His Part

_**8/28/16, Orlando, Florida...**_

" _How long have… we've been in the apartment by ourselves?" Amanda asked when the two realised how quiet it was after dinner, Finn finding a note nearby._

" _Finn, I took your parents out with me and my wife to show them around, their idea. You and Mandy be careful with each other. ;) Shinsuke."_

" _Shinsuke can be very convincing_ , _we might be alone for a while." Finn responded, setting the note down and him and Amanda kissing before both heard the intro for Raw start and Finn lightly rubbing his left hand up and down Amanda's right leg._

 _Creative was clearly starting a good guy turn for Seth… but from the loud boos and chants of "You got yourself screwed!" and "We want our Demon King and Demon Mistress!"_ , _the fans weren't taking to it too well._

" _Damn… and I thought Roman was hated." Amanda said, in slight shock._

" _Same here. These fans look like they're gonna murder Seth." Finn replied, Amanda glancing at his sling and then at her fingers._

' _And if he hadn't been stopped… would he have done that to us?' Amanda thought._

 _It was no secret that Seth didn't get along with Finn and Amanda hadn't wanted to cut Seth out but she felt like she had no choice._

" _You're spacing out again, Mandy." Finn said, Amanda blinking and realised that she had tuned out part of Seth's rant about how Hunter and Kevin had screwed him over._

" _I repressed it for too long… it's not healthy to do that." Amanda responded, Finn pulling her closer until she was straddling him and the two kissing passionately, their foreheads pressed_ _together._

 _When Shinsuke, Harumi and Finn's parents returned, all four smiled when they saw Finn and Amanda curled up in each other's arms… their clothes were slightly disheveled but they_ _were happy as they watched Raw._

 _The next morning, the two found themselves watching Miami vice when they heard a knock at the door and Amanda stood up to answer it… she jumped slightly and turned to Finn after realising that he had smacked her on her ass._

" _Trying to be cute won't stop me from_ _answering that door."_ _Amanda replied with a smile._

" _Can't help it if I don't like keeping_ _my hands off you." Finn responded before Amanda walked over to the door and answered it… only for her hazel eyes to narrow in anger._

 _Finn stood up and walked over to her, seeing who she saw and immediately resting his left hand on her lower back._

" _Hey, you two…" Seth said_ _uncomfortably, Amanda and Finn unsure of what to do._

 _But Amanda was fighting the urge to throw Seth off of the property and tell him that he wasn't welcome back._

" _Aren't ya gonna let me into the house? It's hotter than hell out here." Seth replied, Amanda and Finn looking at each other before letting Seth in._

 _Although it was reluctantly as Seth could tell that Amanda stiffened a bit after closing the door._

" _You still look mad…" Seth said, Amanda tempted to slap him but restraining herself… and Seth changed the subject. "I've always_ _liked that color against your skin." He says, pointing to the emerald green nail polish on the 26 year old's fingernails._

" _Flattery will get you nowhere, Seth." Amanda responded, Seth knowing that she_ _had gone from calm to tense when he saw Finn lightly rubbing his left hand on her right arm._

" _Yeah… look, I'm really sorry about what happened. To both of you… there are better ways of going about handling how everything happened-" Seth explained._

" _None of which you chose… it's not so much you injuring me that I'm mad about, it's that you injured Mandy. Now you either leave peacefully or I'll toss you out that damn door myself!" Finn responded, Amanda a bit startled because he rarely got angry that sometimes she forgot that Finn had a temper._

 _Seth nodded and left, Finn turning to Amanda and carefully held her to him, his left arm secured around her back as they kissed._

 _And both honestly hoped that Seth would respect that they needed their distance from him…_

 **Present time…**

Seth woke up the next morning, tiredly rubbing his brown eyes… he felt like he had crashed and burned last night.

He had no championship match.

He had no match for Wrestlemania set in stone.

Hell, The Shield's reunion was put off completely now though he couldn't fault anyone for that… Dean's injury was accidental, creative originally wanted him to turn heel after Wrestlemania and feud with Roman.

"Fuck…" Seth muttered, rubbing his hands over his face as he sat up before standing up and heading into the restroom… closing the door behind him, he locked it and grabbed the shaving cream and a razor.

He squeezed some of the cream onto his left hand before turning the water on and rubbing the cream together in his hands before applying it to his face. Rinsing it off his hands, Seth grabbed the six bladed razor and ran it under the water before beginning to shave.

Once he was done, he rinsed his razor off and set it aside before washing his face with soap and drying it off with a towel after the water was off.

"Much better." Seth said quietly before going about his morning routine.

In a room on the sixth floor of the Vatican Hotel, Finn was also clean shaven… he didn't normally shave his beard completely off but Amanda's skin was really sensitive and he didn't realise how so until he saw a red mark that had taken up most of her right shoulder, below her collarbone.

He wandered back into the room after washing his face and hands and saw that Amanda was awake, tousled hair still messy and a sleepy smile on her face.

"Aw…" Amanda said, pouting slightly and Finn smiling before he sat down and they kissed. "Feels so different…" She whispered, her right hand resting on the left side of his face.

"I know, love, but it'll grow back. And I'd rather not see your skin turn red like it did on Saturday." Finn responded as his hands reached up and he cradled Amanda's face, kissing her again… before hearing her phone chime and Amanda picking it up, both seeing the text from Enzo.

' _Hey… thanks for reaching out to check if things are going okay. I miss you too and I'm hoping for the best outcome possible, kiddo. I also watched last night and congrats… you and Finn earned it last night.'_

"There we go, love… took time but he's responding to his friends again." Finn replied as Amanda typed out a response.

' _Stay strong, Zo, not everything put out in the media is true and everyone will know that in the end. They don't know you like we do.'_

Once finished, Amanda hit send and accessed her camera app before turning it onto the selfie option and turning the phone to her and Finn. She took the picture and uploaded it to her Twitter page with the caption _'Road to redemption continues tonight for both of us, things are how they should always be with me and my man.'._

Openly admitting the relationship between them had been a huge step but the aftermath hadn't been easy at first.


	3. Staying Strong?

_**10/10/17…**_

 _It was hours before Raw was scheduled to start that the meeting was taking place… but Amanda noticed that something wasn't right when Adrian Neville had been pulled aside by Kurt. The next thing that happened was Adrian going and shoving the door open before storming out of the room._

" _Damn, there goes tonight's main event." Kurt muttered as Amanda and Finn walked over._

" _I'll go talk to him." Amanda said before she and Finn kissed and she followed after Adrian, catching up with him in his locker room._

" _Get out!" Adrian snapped at her._

" _No, I'm not leaving when you're like this. What the hell happened back there?!" Amanda responded, standing her ground._

" _They want me to lose to that jackass!" Adrian replied, standing up. "And I'm not gonna lie, there's been some questionable choices around here for a while!" He growled at her, attempting to leave but she stopped him._

" _Questionable choices?!" Amanda questioned through gritted teeth._

" _Yeah. Balor winning the NXT Championship how he did, getting onto the main roster how he did, winning the Universal Championship not even a month into the tenure… I shouldn't really be surprised, the only real reason he got every opportunity is because he's been sleeping with you a lot longer than either of you were telling us!" Adrian shouted._

 _He was knocked down to the floor by a strong forearm to the side of his jaw, Adrian looking up at Amanda through disoriented eyes. She could have sworn she smelled some alcohol on his breath, she took in a deep breath and gritted her teeth._

" _Really? Since losing your title to Enzo you're drinking your sorrows away?" Amanda asked in a mix of anger and disbelief._

 _Adrian stood up, he stumbled a bit and shook the slight headache away. "Mandy, love, it's not what you think." He said, her shoving his hand away when it rested on her left shoulder… the same shoulder that Adrian had accidentally dislocated during their last match against each other._

" _Really? Because to me it seems like you're really bitter about Finn and how he got to the top so far. Adrian, I had to go back to NXT to improve myself, I made friends with Finn and not just jump his bones when I got there. So, I am so sorry that you think of me as a whore but I wasn't dating anyone since Cody, Finn hadn't been with anyone since him and Aileen split and you know how that ended, you were there when they broke up, you selfish ass!" Amanda said, gradually getting louder until she was yelling and her face turning a scarlet red as Finn and Kurt ran in._

" _Mandy, calm down…" Finn said, rubbing his hand up and down Amanda's back when he felt her body shaking with rage._

" _Get her out of here-" Kurt started to say._

" _No! I wasn't the one who changed, it's her who sleeps with that Irishman every night, who runs at his word and refuses, absolutely refuses, to let herself be convinced or listen to anything she doesn't like!" Adrian shouted, Finn punching him before throwing him against the wall and to the floor._

" _I don't wanna hear another damn thing from you about how Mandy and I are sleeping together so I could get opportunities. We work our asses off to get where we are, so screw you Adrian for thinking so low of both of your former friends!" Finn growled in an angered tone before_ _taking Amanda out of there._

 _Once an ice pack was taped to her bruising right arm, Amanda looked up as Finn sat down and wrapped_ _his_ _arms around her._

" _So much for that workhorse_ _attitude… I really didn't think Adrian had a problem with us." Amanda said quietly before_ _they kissed._

" _I didn't think he did either…_ _but it could've been the reason he didn't introduce us to each other earlier." Finn responded, running his fingers through Amanda's hair to comfort her._

 _Needing a last minute change as Adrian wasted no time in leaving, Kurt went and found Kalisto._

" _Hey, Kurt, what's needed? And what was that shouting?" Kalisto asked._

" _An opponent for Enzo Amore tonight… and that shouting was Adrian going too far and walking out." Kurt answered, Kalisto biting down on his lower lip for a few seconds._

" _I'll do it… and he needs to chill and think about this." Kalisto responded._

 **Present time…**

Dianne was helping out at the Honda Center in Anaheim, her first day back to work having gone okay so far as she and Aestrid rearranged the production crates… but Aestrid could see that Dianne's mind was elsewhere.

"Still not reaching out to many people, is he?" Aestrid asked.

"Just me and a few other friends… not including the two also named in this whole thing." Dianne responded, having blocked the numbers of the two who kept calling her. Aestrid didn't blame her one bit as she had also gotten incessant calls from people who wanted to pry information out of her.

Aestrid and Dianne hugged for a few seconds before letting go, seeing the nearby door open and Finn holding it open for Amanda, the two kissing as they walked in… but Dianne noticed that Amanda turned tense when she glanced at her phone and let it go to voicemail.

The last time Dianne had seen that look on Amanda's face, it had been in October after Adrian had called her… Dianne had picked up the phone instead and things spiralled into an argument from there until Dianne flat out told Adrian that he needed to get his attitude straightened out before hanging up.

Dianne had gotten a script earlier and glanced at Amanda and Finn before walking over to them and handing it to Amanda.

"So they're finally doing it…" Amanda said quietly as she read the part where Roman's character turns into a bad guy.

"Don't know what took them so long to." Dianne replied.

It was when Raw was starting with Finn and Amanda out in the ring and Amanda holding the Raw Women's Championship on her right shoulder when _The Truth Reigns_ by Jim Johnston blared through the arena and Roman walked down the ramp to fans loudly booing him… he got in the ring, his music stopping.

"I'd say I'm sorry about interrupting you two… but I'm not." Roman said after lifting the microphone up to his mouth before turning to Amanda. "The _only_ reason I lost is because I didn't eliminate the man who walked into your life and changed you completely. And you? You ran in there and celebrated with him instead of showing the loyalty you had in The Shield!"

Amanda formed her mouth into a thin line, fighting her inadvertent agitation… resting his right hand on her back, Finn made sure that she stayed calm before Amanda turned to Roman.

"Blaming us won't change the fact that _you_ lost last night, Roman! And from the reaction of the fans, they're sick of you winning contender match after contender match and getting into main event matches when there are countless wrestlers in the back who are more deserving and who work harder and still aren't getting what they deserve, one example being that joke of a match against The Undertaker you had last year! You accused my brother of burying the other talent, you're a damn hypocrite!" Amanda responded, the fans cheering loudly and Roman's eyes widening as he observed her.

He knew she was still in character, there was no denying that… but at the same time, she was also legitimately frustrated with it being the same thing for every Raw pay per view.

"Damn… she's not holding back anymore." Aestrid said as she, Maryse and Dianne watched from the back.

But the three in the ring were interrupted as Mike, Bo and Curtis walked out there.

"Must be nice, huh Mandy? You as a champion again, your boyfriend going back after the WWE Universal Championship… but those titles are _nowhere_ near prestigious enough as _my_ Intercontinental Championship! And yet, I don't have a challenger for Wrestlemania!" Mike responded, the fans loudly booing him.

"Well Miz, maybe if you made it a fair match by keeping the Miztourage in the back and… oh yeah, _actually_ going through a match without any underhanded tactics, you'd have an opponent! Your tactics make you a fake champion." Finn replied, Mike turning livid.

"You okay there?" Dianne asked Maryse, who nodded and rubbed her stomach as hers and Mike's daughter kicked like crazy.

"As long as the fighting stays in the ring, I'm alright." Maryse responded.

But Kurt appeared on the titantron, telling Roman, Finn and Amanda that they needed to leave the ring. Once they did, he turned to Mike.

"I forgot to say this earlier… your opponent tonight _might_ determine who you face at Wrestlemania. And Bo? Curtis? Get to the backstage area, you two are banned from ringside." Kurt responded.

Once they were gone, _The_ _Second Coming_ by CFO$ blared through the arena and Seth walked out there before joining in as "BURN IT DOWN!" blared over the music.

Mike had a feeling tonight's match wouldn't end how he hoped.


End file.
